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Thursday, January 15, 2015

World Cruise - Around The World Day One

Arriving at the ship by way of a Lincoln Town Car and our own chauffeur, excitement peaked. This would be the first day of 108 days of a grand World Cruise. Check in was seamless and took only a few minutes before we were on board, escorted by a staff member and led to our choice of dining, the informal Triton Grill. I knew they had the best French fried sweet potatoes. That was the joy of having sailed Crystal's Serenity before. We were somewhat familiar with the ship.

After lunch we were pleased to see our room was ready even before the 1:30 suggested time. We left our things and went on to wander a bit to fill the time before our bags would arrive. A few minutes were spent with our Miami grands on FaceTime showing them the swimming pool and what it looked like peering over the side then on to the Palm Court Lounge where we found a quiet place to sit and enjoy the Miami Beach skyline.

The neat thing about cruising is meeting new people and it wasn't long before we were exchanging travel experiences with a couple from the west coast of Florida who have lived all over Europe and parts of Asia.

Checking back at our room we discovered our luggage had arrived--all of it. What a relief! Having sent it off more than a week ago it was nice to see it all arrive safely. Now the question was, where do we put it all? The closet was smaller than I remembered but eventually everything fit in and we found enough drawers to divide between the two of us. Most of the empty suitcases fit beneath the bed and we put some of the things that we didn't need until later in the trip in one of them. The other two went off to storage.

Our cabin stewardess gave us the schedule for the gala celebration night and we are about to begin the fun. It includes a cocktail party, a special dinner, and some special evening entertainment. Did I mention the balloon drop to start the festivities?

Tomorrow we sail but tonight it is time to meet and greet the other 606 world cruisers embarking on this great adventure. We will be making 44 stops in a total of 23 countries and sailing 32,706 nautical miles (37,637 land miles). All in the southern hemisphere where it's summertime.

I'm not sure how these posts are going to go. A lot will depend upon time and how well our internet works in other parts of the world but come along with me. I'll try to make it interesting.